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Nearly three-quarters of 82 examinations completed to date have concluded that the tax-exempt organizations, including churches, engaged in some level of prohibited political activity.

Yawn. Everybody knew that churches and other non-profits were breaking the law; it was, then, the subject of relentless discussion. Indeed, though the IRS hasn't, and won't, release the names, the conduct of a handful was so egregious that the Service has recommended their tax-exempt status be revoked.

All of which is fine with me. The law is what the law is, and it's not so ambiguous, so shot-through with gray, that any reasonably intelligent person couldn't have known what the rules do and do not permit. Those who decided to ignore the law should suffer whatever consequence the law prescribes.

That said, the law should be eliminated, and the sooner the better.

Religious faith, even when it's garish, flaming nonsense, is supposed to guide the believer's decision-making and, with consequential matters at hand, it seems to me entirely proper that the believer should solicit the opinion of a trusted advisor, that he might reasonably wish to know how Jesus would vote — if Jesus had ever heard of voting, I mean.

And, in fact, that's how things were in this country until Lyndon Johnson squeaked through a closely contested election and decided to strike back at the church which almost defeated him by passing a law which made "electioneering" illegal for churches.

I make no secret of my skepticism that religion actually makes people better — but you can't say that taking churches out of politics has made the politicians better, either. You can say it's an unconstitutional prohibition against free speech that would have horrified the Founders, and the Congress should say so and be done with the whole bother.

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The Intersection of Religion, Law, and Politics